[1] This must have been one of the _vakeels_ or envoys, whose departure from Bombay, in March 1839, is mentioned in the _Asiatic Journal_, (xxix. 178;) the party is there said, on the authority of the _Durpun_, (a native newspaper,) to have consisted of eleven, Mahrattas and Purbhoos, no mention being made of Moulavi Afzul Ali. We have been unable to trace the further proceedings of the deputation in this country; but they probably found on their arrival, that the fate of their master was already decided, as he was dethroned by the Company, in favour of his cousin Appa Sahib, in September of the same year, on the charge of having participated in a conspiracy against the English power. The justice, as well as policy of this measure, was, however, strongly canvassed, and gave rise to repeated and violent debates in the Court of Proprietors.
[2] The native servants of the Governor-General at Calcutta, on state occasions, wear splendid scarlet and gold caftans.--_See_ Bishop Heber's Journal.
[3] The Khan nowhere exactly explains the surprise which he expresses, here and at other times, at the shouts of _hurra_!--perhaps his ear was wounded by the resemblance of the sound to certain Hindustani epithets, by no means refined or complimentary.
This fancied metamorphosis of the sturdy beef-eaters with their partisans, whose costume has never been altered since the days of Henry VII., into Hindustani _peons_ and _chuprassees_, seems to show that the enthusiasm of the Khan must have been considerably excited--and after this cruel disappointment he dismisses the remainder of the procession in a few words. To a native of India, indeed, accustomed to see every petty rajah or nawab holding a few square miles of territory as the tenant of the Company, surrounded on state occasions by a crowd of the picturesque irregular cavalry of the East, and with a _Suwarree_ or cavalcade of led horses, gayly caparisoned elephants, flaunting banners, and martial music, the amount of military display in attendance on the Queen of Great Britain must naturally have appeared inconsiderable--"The escort consisted of only some two hundred horsemen, but these were cased in steel and leather from head to foot, and their black horses were by far the finest I have yet seen in this country. But though the multitudes of people were immense, yet the procession tell much short of what I had expected from the monarch of so great and powerful a nation! I returned home, however, much gratified by the sights I had seen to-day."